Hollow Kingdom

"So what's the occasion for this party?" Lily asked teasingly.

"To celebrate your birthday," Angie replied, twirling around her room and admiring the silver satin of her dress. Lily cocked her head, puzzled.

"Angie, my birthday isn't for another four months," she said. No one else dared call Queen Angelique "Angie" but Lily could get away with almost anything. Officially she was known as the queen's personal lady-in-waiting but essentially she just oversaw the other maids and general castle affairs; and attended glittering parties arm in arm with Angie. They had been best friends since they were children. They may as well have been sisters. Lily smiled slightly as she traced the thin scar on her palm. Angie had insisted that they were always meant to be sisters, but their souls had been separated by mistake and born in different places.

So she had stolen a dull blade from the orphanage kitchen and used it to cut her palm and Lily's, clasping Lily's bloody hand with hers. "Now we really are sisters," she had declared. "Forever."

"This isn't to celebrate your first birth," Angie was saying now. "This is to celebrate your rebirth. This is the anniversary of the day I went back to Falkirk and brought you here for the royal wedding. This marks the day we ceased being worthless orphans and left that place behind forever. The day we became Queen Angelique LeMontague and Lady Belmont."

Lily laughed. "That sounds like a good reason to celebrate to me."

There was a knock at the door and a team of seamstresses filed into the room to fit Lily for her dress. She had chosen blue silks, and the seamstresses had created a shimmering gown that was sapphire blue and turned to a deep, almost black shade at the bottom. The bodice and skirt were trimmed with glittering pearls and small, exquisite gems. The final product gave the impression that Lily was wearing the night sky.

"I hope you like it, Lady Belmont," the head seamstress said. Lily gave her a bright smile.

"You've never let me down, Geraldine," she said and the older woman looked pleased. The seamstresses helped her into the dress and Angie clapped delightedly.

"You look beautiful, little sister," she cooed. "I want to do your hair."

Since the dress left her arms and shoulders bare, Angie made sure to do Lily's hair up; piling the long red locks into an intricate knot on the top of her head and leaving a few wispy tendrils falling around her face. Lily watched her bright green eyes twinkle in the mirror and gave an approving nod. She would never be as beautiful as Angie; who truly looked the part of a queen with her long limbs, jet black hair and smoky gray eyes framed by long lashes. She made a sharp contrast to Lily's petite frame and her small smattering of freckles. Not to mention her wavy mane of fiery hair.

No one would have guessed they had once been dirty-faced Undesirables living in Falkirk's ramshackle orphanage. Which was, of course, exactly how Angie had wanted it. Her own dress had a plunging neckline and sleeves made of sheer lace. She had a small tiara nestled in her dark hair and her cheeks were so flushed from excitement she didn't even need rouge. Fairly bouncing with glee, Angie turned to Geraldine.

"Did you bring the gift I requested for Lady Belmont?" she asked. Th seamstress nodded and produced a plain white box. Angie made a grand show of opening the box and with a flourish, showed Lily a small tiara, much like her own. Only this one was gold filigree and bedecked with emeralds.

"Tonight consider yourself an honorary princess." Angie set the small crown on Lily's head and kissed her cheek.

"It's beautiful," Lily murmured. Then she smiled. "But it clashes with the dress, don't you think?"

Angie gave a dismissive wave of her hand and then seized Lily's arm and tugged her out of the room. The two of them ran giggling like schoolchildren through the marble halls of the castle.

They were late, as they always were, because Angie loved nothing more than to make a grand entrance. The bored-looking manservant leaning in the doorway of the ballroom snapped to attention at their approach.

"Presenting her Royal Highness, Queen Angelique LeMontague, and Lady Lillian Belmont."

The ballroom hushed for a moment as people paused to bow. Angie linked elbows with Lily and glided down the velvet-lined steps with a haughty demeanor. People returned to their conversations but eyes followed Angie and Lily.

"It's been a long day," Angie declared. "I want to dance." She grabbed Lily's hands and spun her in a circle. People scurried out of their way as the two of them twirled clumsily across the dance floor. Lily nearly tripped over her long train several times, and the delicate flutes of champagne and blackberry wine she kept sipping weren't improving her coordination. Angie staggered into a handsome party guest and shot him a dazzling smile.

"Well hello there," she purred, still managing to sound sultry even though she was slightly drunk. Lily hid a giggle behind her champagne flute. The king had been in failing health when Angie had charmed him into marrying her, and she had been a widow for four of the five years that she had been queen. She never wanted for male companionship though, evidenced by the handsome man's dazed smile as Angie clung to his arm.

"Be a darling and fetch me a wine glass?" She batted her eyelashes and he was quick to oblige.

"What do you think?" Angie asked, appraising him as he walked away.

"I think you're going to need a new post on your bed again," Lily said, smothering a bout of tipsy laughter as Angie shushed her.

"That was one time," she said. Then they both started laughing, leaning on each other as Lily tried not to spill her drink. The man came back and handed Angie her wine.

"Wonderful, now come drink it with me somewhere less crowded." Angie whisked the startled man away, shooting Lily a wink over her shoulder.

"Don't break anything," Lily called after her. Feeling lightheaded she made her way to the banquet table in search of something to eat. She was trying not to let strawberry juice get on her dress when she bumped into someone face first and nearly went sprawling on the floor. She let out a startled squeak as a pair of arms caught her.

"Well that was almost embarrassing," she laughed, looking up into a pair of blue eyes.

"Maybe you should sit down for a moment," her rescuer suggested.

"Nonsense. I'm fine." She pushed away from him. She promptly stumbled and fell forward again, smacking her nose on his chest. "On second thought, maybe sitting down would be a good idea," she said, rubbing her nose. "You can keep me company."

The man looked startled as she tried to tug him with her. In the end he came along with her on his own, as her yanking on him didn't budge him in the slightest. On her way out she snatched a jug of wine from one of the servants.

"I don't think you need anymore," her companion remarked, looking vaguely alarmed.

"Oh this isn't for me. It's for you."

"Beg pardon?"

"You're at a party and you're entirely too sober. It's unseemly. So drink up."

"If you insist, Lady Belmont."

"Oh, don't call me that." Lily waved her hand. "I hate formality. Just call me Lily."

"Lily," he repeated slowly. He accepted the jug she shoved at him but he studied her face for a moment before drinking.

"What?" she asked. "Did I get something in my teeth?"

"No. Your smile is lovely, don't worry."

She snorted delicately. "What's your name?"

"Alec."

Something flickered at the edges of her memory, but her mind was too hazy from the wine to grasp it and it slipped away like water.

"Where are we going?" Alec asked.

"The greenhouse." She wound dizzily past the topiary and fountains in the sprawling gardens until she came to the glass dome of the greenhouse.

"It's mine," she said proudly. "It was unattended until I got here. I always wanted one so now I take care of it myself."

Alec took another sip of wine and then spit it out and yelped.

"Razeth!" Lily scolded. A dragon roughly the size of a large house cat slunk out of the shadows, hissing and ruffling his wings irritably. Alec grimaced and leaned down to massage his ankle where Raz had bitten him.

"Raz, don't be rude to my guest." Lily knelt and patted the dragon's head, running her fingers along his turquoise scales.

"Sorry," she said to Alec. "He's sort of temperamental and doesn't like strangers. He belongs to Angie; he was a wedding gift."

She grabbed Alec's hand and pulled him further up the path. "I have some plants that will help with the bite."

She forced him onto the pile of colorful cushions that she used to curl up on when she visited the greenhouse. Then she stumbled around looking for the right plant.

"If you want some help-"

"You just sit still and drink your wine," she ordered, plucking the leaves that she needed and flopping next to him. "Here, put this on your ankle. It'll ease the sting and prevent infection."

"How did someone like you end up as the queen's lady-in-waiting?" Alec asked.

"It's a long story," Lily said. "How did someone like you end up at a party all alone?"

"Also a long story."

"We're just full of long stories, it seems. We must be very interesting people."

He smiled slightly. "Would it sound crazy if I said I was positive I've met you before?"

Lily smirked. "No, but it would sound like a terrible line."

"You just seem familiar."

Lily cocked her head. "You're not going to say something awful like you must have seen me in your dreams, are you? Because I would have to punch you right in your pretty face."

Alec laughed. "I don't think I'm quite drunk enough to start spewing that sort of rubbish."

They sat in silence for a few minutes and Lily took the opportunity to study him. That just out of reach memory teased the back of her mind again, but she still couldn't make her addled brain focus. Her contemplation was interrupted by a loud boom that rattled the greenhouse windows.

"Fireworks?" Alec said, looking up.

"The queen likes to go all out."

He lowered his eyes and looked at her. "I think I'd better stop with the wine. I think I'm almost drunk enough to start spewing rubbish."

"We mustn't let that happen." Still drunk enough to feel bold, Lily leaned forward and kissed him. More fireworks exploded overhead and she let herself fall into her dreamlike haze as Alec pulled her closer.